No. 6 Tech Wraps Home Stretch With New Mexico Tuesday

Tuesday, April 11

Lubbock, Texas

2 p.m.

Texas Tech Athletics

New Mexico

No. 6 Tech Wraps Home Stretch With New Mexico Tuesday

April 11, 2017 | Baseball

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The Red Raiders will take on the Lobos on Tuesday, April 11, at 2 p.m. at Rip Griffin Park

LUBBOCK, Texas – The No. 6 Texas Tech baseball team will square off with New Mexico for the second time this season on Tuesday, April 11, at 2 p.m. at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park.

Tuesday's contest will air live on FOX Sports Southwest Plus and can also be heard on the Texas Tech Sports Network on 97.3 FM. Live stats will also be available via TexasTech.Statbroadcast.com.

The Red Raiders (28-7, 6-3) faced off against the Lobos (18-12-1, 11-2-1) in the early stages of the 2017 season back on Feb. 28 in Lubbock. Tech and New Mexico will meet again in Albuquerque on April 25-26.

In the first meeting, the Red Raiders picked up a 7-2 victory against the Lobos. After falling behind 2-0 in the opening frame, Tech got one back in the bottom half of the inning thanks to a homer from junior infielder Michael Davis. The Red Raiders then tacked on four runs in the third and added two more, keeping the Lobos off the board for the remainder of the game to improve Tech to 9-1 through the first 10 games of the year.

Since then, the Red Raiders have won 19 of their next 25 games to improve to 28-7 this season, including an impressive 15-2 mark in Lubbock. The Lobos went 14-10-1 over that stretch, while getting off to a hot start in Mountain West play at 11-2-1. Last weekend, New Mexico traveled to San Jose State, dropping a tight 2-1 decision in the series opener and tying the finale at 5-5.

Tech went 3-1 last week, throwing down a 15-4 victory over New Mexico State in Las Cruces on April 4. The Red Raiders followed it with a series win over then-No. 29 Baylor at Rip Griffin Park, picking up a 13-2 win in game one & a 5-3 victory in the second contest to clinch the series. Tech dropped a heartbreaker in Sunday's finale, 10-9, allowing the Bears to salvage the trip to Lubbock.

When the Red Raiders and Lobos last faced off, freshman right-hander John Henry Gonzalez took the mound for his second start of the year. In that matchup, Gonzalez tossed 4.0 innings, giving up just two runs on two hits, coming in the first inning. He followed the opening frame with three-straight scoreless frames, before giving way to junior lefty Jacob Patterson, who earned the win after going 2.2 innings of scoreless relief.

Tech will hand the ball over to Gonzalez again on Tuesday afternoon against New Mexico, who will make his eighth start of the year and ninth appearance in a Red Raider uniform. The Lobos starter has not yet been determined.

The Red Raiders and the Lobos met four times in 2016, three during the regular season and one in the NCAA Regional play. Tech took the season series, 3-1, picking up a 14-10 victory in Lubbock on March 22. In a two-game road trip to Albuquerque, the Red Raiders split, taking game one, 7-4, while falling 6-5 in the regular season finale.

The postseason matchup provided plenty of theatrics, as Stephen Smith launched a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning to put Tech up, 4-3. The game was closed out by a walk-off pick-off, as Hayden Howard caught a Lobo runner lurking too far off first to send Tech to the championship round of the Lubbock Regional.

Tech leads the all-time series between the two, 69-45-1, while posting a 44-20 record in Lubbock.

The Red Raiders are hitting .300 this season, with freshman infielder Grant Little leading the way with a .369 clip. Senior infielder Hunter Hargrove holds the top spot in hits with 49, while the team-lead in RBI was taken over by junior infielder Orlando Garcia, moving up to 37 this season after tallying 11 last week. It was part of an eight-hit week for the El Paso, native, with four of his hits clearing the fence for homers.

Garcia's week helped him earn Big 12 Player of the Week and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper National Player of the Week on Tuesday afternoon. He is the first Red Raider to earn a national honor this season and the sixth conference accolade recipient.

Tech's 3-1 week moved the Red Raiders up to No. 6 in all six polls in this week's rankings. It is the first time this season Tech has been placed in the same slot by all of the national publications. The Red Raiders have been ranked inside the top six of at least one poll in each of the last two years.

After their date with the Lobos, the Red Raiders will travel to Manhattan to take on Kansas State on April 13-15 before Easter Sunday.